While the pilgrims' story is closely tied to beer, it may have played less of a role than we've come to believe.

Legend has it that the Pilgrims decided to settle at Plymouth Rock, instead of continuing south to Virginia as originally planned, because they had run out of beer. There is a grain -- barley, perhaps -- of truth to the story, as evidenced by the oft-quoted "For we could not now take time for further search our victuals being pretty much spent especially our beer."
         
The snippet hails from "Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth," written by Edward Winslow and William Bradford from November 1620 to November 1621. The fragment, however, merely describes a few days exploration. The rest of the passage reveals that there were other considerations, too, such as finding cleared land, evidence of corn having been planted in recent years and fresh drinking water.

Another myth is that the colonists' first building project was a brewery. They first built shelter for themselves, as you might expect. It wasn't until they'd established themselves for a few months that a brewhouse was finally built. As time passed, more people's kitchens included home breweries, too. Without traditional brewing ingredients, the colonists substituted local items -- with the guidance of Native Americans -- such as maize, birch, pumpkin and even spruce.

So where did these legends start? In the years following the end of Prohibition, Anheuser-Busch and other breweries began running ads with slogans such as "Pilgrim Fathers drank it." The U.S. Brewers Association also ran holiday ads using the tagline "Beer, Not Turkey, Lured Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock." The beer industry was still stinging from 13 years of Prohibition, and they wasted no time trying to persuade customers that beer was a fundamental part of America's history.

The first Thanksgiving was held after the harvest of 1621. It wasn't considered a special holiday, just a normal three-day harvest celebration. Turkey was served, along with deer and various types of fish. The only two contemporary accounts of the famous meal don't mention what the Pilgrims drank, but "Mourt's Relation" mentions that the first barley crop yielded "indifferent" results. While it's possible some beer was brewed with that barley, it's more likely they didn't bother.

But that shouldn't deter you from enjoying beer with your Thanksgiving dinner. If you read my last column, I made several beer-pairing suggestions. Beer has been an integral part of our history, even if some details have gotten lost or scrambled over time. I, for one, am thankful we have so many great choices of beer to drink this Thanksgiving. Join me in raising a toast to our forefathers who sacrificed and settled America. If not for them, who knows what we'd be drinking?

The Pilgrims, Thanksgiving and Beer. By Jay R. Brooks for the Bay Area News Group.



Hope your gobble gobble was great!!

The Pissed LiBEERian